Ivorian citizen born in Abidjan, August 15, 1946, Jean Kacou DIAGOU is the founder and current Chairman of the first Ivorian insurance and bank group, NSIA Insurance and its holding company, NSIA Participations.

After a BA in philosophy, a Master’s degree in economics at the University Felix Houphouet BOIGNY in Abidjan and an insurance specialization at the CNAM in Paris, he began a career in insurance and rose to become Vice Chairman of the AXA Group for Africa.

In 1995, after participating in the negotiations on the harmonization of legislation on insurance in the sub-region and co-wrting the CIMA Code (Inter-African Insurance Markets Conference), he had the intuition that a place exists for a purely African and transnational insurance operator. Then he founded the Nouvelle Société Interafricaine d’Assurances, NSIA. NSIA currently has 19 subsidiaries in 12 countries of the subcontinent.

With NSIA Bank Guinea, the group holds 2 banks.

In 2006, he led the negotiations leading to the acquisition of BIAO-CI, the oldest bank in Côte d’Ivoire, by his group. NSIA, thus positioning itself as a precursor of bank asssurance in Africa. Since the takeover and reorganization of the bank, BIAO-CI, also present in the entire sub-region, rose in the ranking to 3rd position in the Ivorian banking sector.

Mr. Kacou Diagou chaired the ASACI (Insurance Association of Côte d’Ivoire) from 1988 to 1995 and from 2003 to 2005.

Jean Kacou Diagou has also been the Chairman of the General Confederation of Enterprises of Côte d’Ivoire (CGECI), the Ivorian employers’ association from April 2005 to December 2016.

He is the Chairman of the Federation of West African Business Organisations since September 2010 and Co President of the African and South-East Asia Chamber of Commerce based in Singapore.

He was president of the AIO (African Insurance Organisation) from May 2001 to May 2002 and of FANAF(Federation of African National Insurance Companies)from 1990 to 1996.

Married with five children, Jean Kacou DIAGOU is Commander of the Ivorian National Order of Merit and Commander of the National Order of Côte d’Ivoire. Passionate about religious music, he is also a songwriter.